Alan Wood, the World War II veteran credited with providing the flag in the historic flag raising on Iwo Jima, has died. He was 90.

Mr. Wood died April 18 of natural causes at his Sierra Madre, Calif., home, his son, Steven Wood, confirmed Saturday.

The veteran — who, his son said, was always humbled by his small role in the historic moment — was a 22-year-old Navy communications officer on a landing ship off Iwo Jima who happened to have a 37-square-foot flag he had found months before in a Pearl Harbor Navy depot.

After five days of fighting to capture the island, a Marine asked him for the biggest American flag he could find. Six soldiers later raised that flag on Mount Suribachi in a legendary moment captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, Fox News reports.